Phosphorus and Environment.

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Phosphorus is one of the most important elements on earth both for plants as well as for animals. It is one of the main elements of DNA, RNA, Protein, amino acid, and cell membrane in the form of phospholipids and so it forms the very basis of life in all living organisms. For plants, it is the second most vital element in their growth and development after nitrogen and is one of the critical elements for plant growth among NPK. Due to its vital need in agriculture, Phosphorus fertilizers like DAP, NPK, SSP are also among the most expensive and important inputs in a cropping season.



The simple cycle of the phosphorous can be easily explained from the following process

Humans take phosphorus from plants, plants take phosphorus from soil, the soil has phosphorus from the weathering of the rocks/Parent material and by decomposition of organic matter and input of fertilizers.

From the above process, it can easily be understood that phosphorus is a finite nonrenewable resource that might get exhausted in the coming 70 to 100 years.


Since India is mainly an agriculture-based country, we are the largest importer of phosphate fertilizers in the world.

But why do we import?

Sadly, the present condition shows that Indian soils are very poor in phosphorus and we do not have many phosphate reserves which can meet the current demand of agriculture in India, so we import tonnes of phosphate and spend millions of dollars to meet our current demand for phosphate fertilizer since farmers can not afford to buy such expensive fertilizers, Government of India also Provide a subsidy to make it affordable.

Morroco, Russia, China, and middle east countries have abundant phosphate reserves and are the main exporter of phosphorus.



Let's talk about the efficiency of phosphorus uptake 

You might be surprised to know that the amount of phosphorus we apply into the field, only 20% of that is taken by the plants.

What happens to the remaining 80%- Well, Since phosphorous is a very reactive element it gets fixed into the soil at a very fast rate, in the soil either it forms an insoluble substrate with other elements like calcium, iron or gets used by the micro-organisms for their survival and get converted into an organic form which is not available to the plant.

Let's look at how phosphorus is related to water pollution-  When a plant uptake the phosphorus it stores it in its seed in the form of phytate for the next generation, Since we consume a grain-based diet we consume the seed of the plant, but interestingly that phytate is not digestible by the humans and get out in our excretion and went to the sewage and ultimately to the water bodies.


As a result, it causes the formation of algal blooms, causes eutrophication, and decreases the oxygen and light penetration in the water body which results in the death of aquatic organisms.

Lake Erie in the USA is one of the examples of this phenomenon.


What can be the possible solution to increase the efficiency of phosphorus uptake-

Talking about the solutions, a lot of research is going on in this area across the world. I would like to explain the 2 common approaches to this problem.

1. Root-based approach- In this approach we mainly try to increase the surface area of the root of the plant by increasing the number and size of root hairs, so that it can absorb more phosphorous from the soil. This can be done by identifying the gene controlling the root hair growth and then we can apply genome editing and other techniques to enhance its function.


2. Enzyme-based approach - In this case, we focus on the enzyme secreted by the roots in the soil to degrade the phosphorus fixed in the soil and make it in the available form. Purple acid phosphatase is one such enzyme. By using the gene manipulation technique, we can enhance its level of production so as to have more phosphorus availability.

What can be the possible implication of this research -

The possible results can give a lot of advantages to the farming community by decreasing their expenses and making the input cost low, it can also decrease the water pollution due to phosphorous compounds and it might extend the agriculture in those parts of India, where soil contain very less phosphorous.













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